"Bitter Green" is a song by Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

, first released in 1968

1968 in music

-Events:*January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding.*January 6 – Gibson Guitar Corporation patents its Gibson Flying V electric guitar design....

 on his album Back Here on Earth

Back Here on Earth

Back Here On Earth is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's fourth studio album, released in 1968 on the United Artists label.Apart from his eponymous debut album, it is Lightfoot's only studio album not to derive its title from a song on the album...

. The single reached #44 in Canada.

Lightfoot also included the song on his 1969 live album Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's fifth album, released in 1969 on the United Artists label. It was Lightfoot's first live album and until the release of a live DVD in 2002, remained Lightfoot's only officially released live recording...

, and recorded a second studio version for his 1975 compilation album Gord's Gold

Gord's Gold

Gord's Gold is a compilation album released by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot in 1975.It was the first Lightfoot compilation to feature music from his Warner Bros. Records. The album was originally released as a two-record album featuring re-recordings of his United Artists hits...

. A cover version by Ronnie Hawkins

Ronnie Hawkins

Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...

 reached #36 in 1970. The Idle Race recorded a version of the song on their 1971 album Time Is

Time Is

Time Is is the final studio album recorded by The Idle Race. It was recorded in 1970 after Jeff Lynne had left the band. He was replaced by vocalist Dave Walker and guitarist Mike Hopkins.-Track listing:#"Dancing Flower" – 2:14...

.

Content

The song is a ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

about a woman who roams the hillsides above the town for years waiting for her lover to come home:

Waiting for her master to kiss away her tears

No one knows the identity or fate of her lover, but the woman is well known and loved. Years later, on one cold autumn day, a stranger walks into town and weeps at the churchyard where his beloved lies buried.

Townspeople speculate as to who the mystery man is:

Some say he was a sailor who died away at sea

Some say he was a prisoner who never was set free

Lost upon the ocean, he died there in the mist

Dreaming of her kiss

Her lover finally returns, too late, as the woman has passed away:

But now the bitter green is gone, the hills have turned to rust

There comes a weary stranger, his tears fall in the dust

Kneeling by the churchyard in the autumn mist

Dreaming of her kiss

Chart performance

Chart (1968)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Top Singles	44